Peculiar Turmoil
by FunkyDuckling
Summary: A twist on City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Clary and Alec meet at Pandemonium, and end up getting along a bit better than before. DISCLAIMER: All of this belongs to Cassandra Clare.
1. Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

**Alec's POV**

It had been a true shock to me when that mundane girl had barged in on Jace, Isabelle and me. Well, it had actually been more of a shock that she had, in fact, _seen_ us, and not have had any difficulty with it; after all, we had had runes of invisibility on to avoid just that. You couldn't have mundanes getting suspicious every time you went out demon hunting, otherwise you would end up spending a lot of time being interrogated by the mundane police force.

This time, I had just blamed Jace, he had, after all been the one who had put my runes on for me, of course, and that peace had been short lived when I realized that I had put the runes on Jace.

Today, however, Hodge had said that we would be discussing what we were going to do about the mundane girl. He hadn't exactly been all that pleased to learn about the one mundane out of a whole club that had been able to see anyone but Isabelle.

I walked down one of the long, winding corridors of the Institute, heading to the library for our early morning meeting. I was fully clothed for the day, having been so for quite a while. The events of the night still weighed heavily on my mind. Not to mention the pretty mundane girl. She had seemed quite compassionate about that shape changer, even if it had been a demon. That was a most admirable trait for one to have.

Opening the door to the library, I could already hear the low murmurs of Hodge, Isabelle, and Jace's voices. Not that I had been late, they had been quite early, I was sure, as I checked my watch, in fact, _I_ was still five minutes early.

Walking in I threw myself down in a chair, blinking at them as Hodge, who, having noticed my arrival began the official meeting.

"We need to figure out what the mundane girl is going to do. So we're going to need someone to keep an eye on her while we figure out what's going on." Hodge said, shifting his eyes over the three of us, expecting one of us to volunteer. Of course, he was more than right.

"I'll watch her." I replied, peering up at him through my eyelashes and giving a slight wave of my hand, almost as if reminding them that I was, in fact, present.

Hodge blinked at me and slowly nodded, as if he were somewhat unsure of how it would end, giving me the job. I wasn't that bad tempered, I was pretty sure, anyway, though, granted, I wasn't any Jace. He was typically much better at being civil than me.

"Of course, Alec, though you might want to leave now, catch her at her house and trail her for the rest of the day." He replied, glancing at me dubiously once again before sliding me the paper with her address written on it. I nodded, grabbing it, and stood, heading out the hallway and once again down a corridor, though this one led to the front entrance, instead of back up to my bedroom.

I quickly grabbed my cellphone, stele and such and headed out onto the streets of New York, my hands dug into my pockets as I made my way towards the girl's home at a brisk walk. It wasn't all that difficult to find, a relatively tall building, I found a place to wait on a bench across the street, playing game idly on my cellphone, though I was paying much more attention to the building.

It didn't take long for her to emerge, with what appeared to be a friend of hers, the mundane boy that had come into the Storage Room after her at Pandemonium.

Almost surprised, I saw her glance back and forth, and then her eyes landed on my, and I watched, with a slight smile as they narrowed into a glare. So, she hadn't forgotten about Pandemonium at all.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't all that difficult to keep up with the fiery, redheaded mundane girl, though I could tell she knew I was there, almost as if she actually felt my eyes watching her. She didn't appear to actually try to take off running, though that most likely would have sparked a bit of curiosity from her mundane friend, plus, she had seen us kill an Eidolon Demon, so she probably would think that I could easily catch her, which would be correct, anyway. It appeared more like the girl was trying to fade away into the crowd, which occupied the streets at this hour, although, despite her efforts, I could easily tell her apart from the rest, with the combination of my training for vigilance as a Shadowhunter, as well as the fact that, despite being rather short, I could still easily make out her red hair, disappearing and reappearing with each step that she, and the crowd took.

I sighed softly when I saw both of the mundanes veering off into a Mexican restaurant, Nacho Mama, or so the sign proclaimed it as. It was somewhat of a wish of mine that I would be able to speak to her, and that she would at least get to where she was going, so I would have to keep following them, eventually it was sure to get suspicious, if I kept stopping when they stopped. If I was a mundane, I surely would have found it at least a bit peculiar.

However, at least this mundane girl had even the slightest inkling of knowledge of why I was following her, even if it might not have been all that much of a comfort to her. As it was, if there was someone following you, you would doubtfully be comfortable in the situation, unless it was common place for a mundane, which it seldom would ever be.

I found myself a place, lounging against a nearby building to wait for them, wishing that I had brought something a bit more interesting to do, other than texting Isabelle.

'_How r u sis?_' I texted her, watching the restaurant carefully, hopefully they would leave soon and I would have to be standing there, waiting for them like some sort of stalker.

'_I'm good. Still watching her?_' She replied, Isabelle had a gift, I hadn't mastered the texting thing, while she could text like mad, it always seemed that, as soon as I texted her, I had a text there, waiting for me. It was part of her mastery of all things that a teenage girl should know.

'_Yea, I am._'

'_So, is she cute? ;)_' My eyes narrowed as I read the text, of course, leave to Isabelle not to leave anything alone. It wasn't a big surprise, knowing her.

'_What r u talking about?_'

'_So, you do then ;D_' I simply shook my head at my cellphone and slipped it back into my pocket as I spotted the mundane pair beginning to exit the restaurant. Straightening, I once again began following her as they began their way down the street, turning easily at the street corners. They very well might have known this city, or at least this area better than I did. Even though, over all I still knew New York much better than the majority of any one. It was one of the perks of being Nephilim; you learned all of this as part of your training.

It was easy, still, to follow the girl into the coffee shop of sorts, Java Jones. If she was a danger to us, which was something Hodge vaguely speculated over, then she wasn't doing such a good job trying to get away from me, or even come after me, for that matter.

Either they _really_ hadn't trained her well; she was just a mundane, or there was something more to it, and she was just clueless to that fact. None of those things seemed too far-fetched, of course, it the world that I lived in, out of the category of all of those mundanes who remained unaware of the dangerous world we lived in, protecting them from all of the things that would surely be nightmare worthy to them.

Upon entering the coffee shop I ordered a black coffee, my favorite, I could barely stand any of those lattes; they were much too sweet for me. I took my seat within sight of the mundane girl and her little friend, sipping my coffee, and trying not to pay any attention to the horrible poetry the man, Eric, or something was practically screaming into the microphone.

"_Come, my faux juggernaut, my nefarious loins! Slather every _

_Protuberance with arid zeal! Turgid is my torment! Agony Swells within!_"

It was horrifying, truly horrifying what this mundane thought was poetry, appropriate to be read in front of an entire coffee house, personally, I would have just though that he would end up embarrassed, but then again, he didn't look at all like the type who would end up all that embarrassed from doing something just a bit stupid in public.

I blinked, a bit in surprise when I saw the girl staring at me, or more like glaring at me. I felt a slight smile pulling at the corner of my lips as I turned and returned my mug to the counter, exiting the coffee shop.

It was only a few moments before I heard her footsteps coming towards me, and I looked up from my cellphone, which I had been using to preoccupy myself.

"Why are you _following me_?" She asked her tone severe, a smiled play across my lips.

"I'm supposed to be following you. You're potentially dangerous, you know." I reply, the girl simply stared at me, not completely comprehending, so I continued, "You see, not many mundanes, like you, if you are even a mundane, can see us." She blinked.

"What's a mundane?"

"A human, someone who can't typically see the shadow world, like you, at least, possibly like you, we can't be sure." I replied, studying her expression, trying to decipher how she was handling it. It wasn't all that easy to read her face though; she kept things concealed rather well.

"So you're saying I might not be human." She replied, her tone a bit surprised, as well as shocked.

"No, I'm saying that you might not be completely human. For all you know, you might be like me. Or us." I replied, trying to decide exactly how much to tell her.

"That's such a comfort." I almost smile at her reply, with that sarcasm, she nearly reminded me of Jace.

"Show me your hand." I stated, it might help me figure out how she could see us, even though she seemed to have no knowledge of anything about any of the shadow world, with no knowledge of downworlders, either.

"Okay." Her voice was nervous as she held out her hand; I peered at it, trying to see the rune that was laid on my right hand for an extra talent with our weaponry. One of my first marks; she didn't have anything on her hand though. I blinked in mild surprise and let go of her head, shaking my head. It was still possible, even though she didn't have any marks.

"What were you looking for?" She asked, a stunned curiosity residing in her voice.

"This." I replied, holding my right hand out to her, she took it, surveying it, and then shook her head.

"There's nothing there." She said softly, a smile curled my lips again.

"Clear your mind, you'll see." She blinked and appeared to concentrate, at my request, and then dropped my hand with a gasp; I assumed that she had, in fact seen the mark.

"A tattoo?" She asked; she still appeared to be at least a bit shocked. I shook my head.

"No, it's a rune. That one gives us more skill with weapons and such." I replied carefully.

"Who's us?" She asked, I hesitated a moment, not sure how many new facts that she would be able to handle.

"The Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, like me, as well as Jace, Isabella, and the rest of our families." I replied carefully. Not wanting to end up shocking her.

"Then who are you?" She asked slowly.

"I'm Alec." She nodded cautiously and blinked, almost as if she had forgotten something and was only just coming back to remembering it.

"I'm Clary, Clary Fray." She replied, only to be interrupted by her cellphone ringing, she reached into the messenger bag that was hanging over her shoulder and pulled it out, blinking at the caller ID and then answering her phone.

"_Mom_?" She asked.

"_. . . don't come home . . . not safe . . . stay with Simon . . . call Luke. . ._" I blinked in surprise at the flickers of conversation I picked up, not exactly an unassuming conversation, from my point of view. More suspicious, of course, I was a Shadowhunter; after all, I was supposed to notice things like that, especially with Clary's "gift" and all.

I watched as she hung up the phone, her eyes wide, and terrified.

"I have to go." She blurted out and took off at a run. I raced after her, catching her wrist, and causing her to strike out at me. I stumbled back to avoid getting hit before taking off after her. I had to follow her. Something was going on, and even if she wasn't involved in whatever it was, it was still a bit too curious and thought provoking for my taste.


	3. Author's Note

I'm going to put these stories on hold for the moment. I haven't gotten around to writing another chapter for Musical Chemistry (my Perfect Chemistry fanfiction), and I don't have any muse for it, either. As for my other story, Peculiar Turmoil (Mortal Instruments fanfiction), I don't really know where I'm going with it anymore. At the moment a Clary and Alec pairing just seems odd (I prefer Magnus and Alec), so this may or may not be the ending of it, or it might undergo a bit of twist from my original thoughts on it. For now though, I'll be putting these on hold for a bit. School's in the way, I have two advanced classes this year and they need a lot more commitment, plus projects, and extra things outside of school. So, I'm sorry, and I'll try to get back up and running with these stories as soon as possible!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, absolutely positively nothing. It all belongs to Cassandra Clare! One can dream, though.

_Sorry for the super long wait. I've been busy with school. This past week I've missed quite a few days, and I have to make that my absolute priority (obviously). So I might have been working on this for a while by the time it gets posted. I'm sorry for taking so long, though. And I think I'm changing it, a bit. I don't really know where to go with Clary x Alec as a couple. I'll probably end up pulling my hair out (figuratively, of course) trying to figure out what direction to stick with. No worries, though, I promise to make it interesting, so really, no worries! And, lastly, before we get started, thank you for all the reviews! And my apologies, once again._

* * *

Alec never had been the one to leap into action at a moment's notice. Well, that actually wasn't all that correct. He was known for leaping to protect his family, not a complete stranger. It felt almost as if he had been pushed forward as he took off after the girl. Clary, her name was. Perhaps it was just the odd situation that simply pushed him into action. It was more plausible, though it was hard to ignore the growing comradery that he felt that he shared with the girl.

One could only hope that he was only empathetic. There was obviously a problem that had taken place with her mother. Obviously of some peculiar means (although none of those would ever truly be peculiar to him). He held no want to know any further the worry that the girl held for her mother. At least, in a way that he could relate to it through experience. There was, after all, always a difference between knowing your parents very well could be going to a life or death situation, compared to knowing nothing more than the fact that something terrible had happened. it was bad enough for Alec to have to fret over his sister and adopted brother getting themselves killed. It was common knowledge that they weren't the most cautious of people. Put them together, alone and, well, things would surely never turn out all that positively.

He never wanted to have to think about it as anything more than one of his many worries.

Call it a six sense of sorts, but he knew that the outcome would surely be grim if he lost the girl. It wasn't just a matter of proving himself, anymore. No, he needed to save her, to keep her safe. And it wasn't out of his obligation anymore, either. It was a bit of a twist that he was sure that he didn't know how to deal with in the slightest yet.

The focus at the moment, though, was keeping his eyes on the vibrant red tresses that seemed to be fading into the crowds. Alec picked up the pace. He wasn't going to let her get away. Whatever it was, he was sure that she shouldn't be facing it alone. It seemed almost as if change was lighting the air.

Somehow, despite the large crowds that had begun flooding the streets as the hour grew later and the sun began to fade from the sky, Alec managed to keep Clary within sight. He sped up to grab her arm, pulling her to a stop as she nearly halted to begin up the steps to what appeared to be her apartment. She tried to shake his hand off, but he held on, despite her attempts to strike him, once again.

"Stop. Just for a moment please." Alec said, pulling her back a bit from the stairs. He wasn't going to allow her to run away. Not this time. There was something waiting up there for them. Something a lot less than pleasant. the glare that she shot him was fierce and admittedly a bit chilling.

"Fine. Just let go." Clary commanded, giving another yank of her wrist. This time, however, Alec released her wrist. She at least had to understand his own urgency by now. By the look in her eyes, though, it was more fear over everything else. He felt a strike of pity for the girl before him. She obviously wasn't used to having to be frightened like this. Not a sheltered life, just merely not as exposed to the dangers of the world as he was himself.

It was always a wondrous day when a supposed mundane gained the sight. Always the nagging curiosity, though, the what if? _What if there was something more to this_? That was something to have Hodge think on later though, once he escorted the supposed fair maiden, who was really quite aggressive, if her hair gave it any indication, bright red, of course.

Alec's eyes focused on Clary's urgently as he tugged her under an overhang and out of sight of anyone who might come upon them.

"You have to listen to me. I'll explain everything perfectly to you later but you _have _to let me check the perimeter before you go in. You'll be getting your mom and yourself killed if you just go rumbling in there. Let me check for demons first. _Please_." Alec's eyes pleaded with her. There was no way that he was going to let her go in there unprotected. Always better to go barging into a situation, practically alone when you at least know what you're looking for.

He was definitely starting to sound like Jace.

"Fine." He heard Clary mutter and he smiled in relief. At the very least he wouldn't have to worry about her getting herself in a stupid, dangerous decision. Alec trusted her to keep to her word. Even if it wasn't much more than a single syllable muttered under her breath.

This peculiar sense of trust was something that he had seemed to almost feel in the very core of his bones. He knew that he could trust her in nearly every sense of the world in a heartbeat. If only he could tell easily enough if she returned the sentiment.

Quickly, Alec reached into his pocket and grabbed his Sensor and activated it, barely noticing Clary's curious, though still worried and drastically impatient gaze. Alec waited impatiently for the thing to activate, tapping his foot and glaring at the device fiercely. There was no time for them to spend standing around and waiting for it to get wormed up.

Everything really would have been so much better if the Sensor worked faster. Finally, though, Alec saw the readings pop up on the previously dark screen and his eyes widened noticeably. They were high, or higher than the average readings of an apartment complex in New York City were, anyway, in this area. The only reason that the typically worryingly high readings were common place was due to the large population and size of the city. Not to mention the fact that the majority of shadow hunters, such as himself, were teenagers.

Much to Alec's relief, the high readings weren't all from today, which was a better surprise than he would have suspected to find here, though there was still quite a bit of activity even at this moment.

"We've got to get going. They're closing in." Alec stated, an unsuspected urgency coating his voice as he began to tug Clary out of their hiding place and towards the entrance of the complex.

"The demons? Where?" Clary asked, dreading shining through in her eyes in voice. Almost as if she knew but she didn't want to guess. In fact, Alec was quite sure that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Here. They're coming here."

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_A little bit of a cliff hanger for you guys, no? Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm going to set Alec and Clary up as a couple now, by the end of this chapter (which took a few weeks for me to finish it). I promise I'll start trying to add chapters more quickly, but don't hate me if I can't. Thanks for understanding!_

_Please Read & Review!_


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